I wish they all could be California Girls
Though September Girls’ principal sound is predicated on the warm, enveloping brand of guitar-comprised heaviness that Kevin Shields trademarked with Loveless and Billy Corgan popularized with Siamese Dream, it would be an ironic miss to slap a cushy label like “dream pop” across the face of a band with such a concrete, aggressive punk edge. If the music of Veneer, the group’s latest EP, is any sort of indicator, there isn’t a single member of this all-girl Irish quintet that would be caught dead gazing at their shoes during a performance. Due in large part to their driving rhythm section and singer Camoimhe’s charismatic snarl, September Girls pull off the affectless, echoey experimentation of their alternative forefathers with an unprecedented bravado that will leave listeners itching for more.
In terms of the contemporary musical landscape, September Girls’ duo-guitar swirl lands them somewhere between LA’s Silversun Pickups and Welsh power trio The Joy Formidable, though they’re a little heavier than the former and little more structurally streamlined than the latter. The Veneer EP is the group’s second release of 2014, preceded by their debut full-length Cursing The Sea. The two works feel (unsurprisingly) stylistically akin. The record’s title track is anchored by lead vocalist Camoimhe; her singing is slinky and seductive, yet still permeated by an immediately recognizable tension. She manages quite a bit of nuanced subtlety despite being hidden behind a fog of delay pedals. The singer’s enchanting Irish Brogue peeks through the feedback during the opening monologue of “Black Oil,” riding the crust of the crunchy, piston-like bass line, which is carried through from the album’s first track. By far the “heaviest” of the songs on Veneer, its lyrics (“If I could swim I’d be dead right now”) disperse in a small black cloud, diluting a Courtney Love-style bleakness into the EP’s atmosphere.
The way the high-pitched, analog synthesizer sounds mix with the reverb-tinged guitars in “Melatonin” gives the song a lucid, almost whimsical feel. During the finale of “Butterflies” September Girls put their twin axwomen to work in a climactic noise rock duel to the death. Again, despite the deliberately oppressive wall of echoes, the observable intricacy of the guitar interplay is staggering. September Girls’ sound engineer needs a raise. The call and response feel of the final section is a promising sign of the group’s ability to inject a much needed splash of “rock” into the subgenre of alternative rock.
As soon as last screech of Veneer cut out, one is yearning for more. September Girls are both crushing and welcoming, both playful and deadly serious, often within the confines of a single song. There’s an infectious excitement that comes with catching such a promising, talented band at a critical moment in their career, when their act is still so full of potential, so full of energy, and so full of pre-fame sincerity.
Needless to say, it’s exciting to see what the Girls have in store for us.
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